Like to grind your own coffee beans first thing in the morning before making a brutally strong cup of joe with your stovetop Italian-style espresso maker?

Have a garage so stuffed with outdoor accoutrements -- multiple bikes, a quiver of skis, snowboards for a variety of conditions, kayaks for creeks and big water, a stand-up paddleboard, and maybe even a skateboard or a unicycle -- that the idea of putting a car (presumably a Subaru or a Prius) inside is laughable?

You must live in Boulder.

This depiction of your average Boulderite, or at least your average outdoorsy Boulder stereotype, is at the heart of a 30-second video that will air on NBC during the Boulder stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, pitching the city as a year-round haven for outdoor enthusiasts to viewers in 160 countries.

The ad -- which features Boulder resident Brandon Dwight brewing his coffee and then ambling out to his garage to select the day's outdoor activity -- was created pro bono by the Sterling-Rice Group in collaboration with the local organizing committee for the bike race and the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The only talking in the video points out that Boulder gets 300 days of sunshine a year, has 54,000 acres of open space and 300 miles of trails and bike paths. The video ends with the tagline: "Boulder. We do this every day."

"It's a fine tagline," said Christie Wood, an account director with Boulder-based Sterling-Rice. "While we're certainly thrilled to be hosting a stage of the Pro Cycling Challenge, on any given Thursday in Boulder there are hundreds of pro riders zooming up and down the streets, and you can go into Amante and see a sea of Lycra on any day."

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Sterling-Rice handled the entire branding effort for the local organizing committee, which includes posters, a logo, water bottles and hats, all of which are more focused on the race itself. But for the TV spot, the company -- and the board of the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau -- decided it made sense to highlight Boulder to race viewers as a great future destination.

"We knew that by the time this thing aired, there was really no point in advertising, 'Come watch the Boulder stage.' It was already going on," Wood said. "What (the visitors bureau board) helped us understand is that their drive is to leverage the Boulder stage of the Pro Cycling Challenge to elevate the status of Boulder in the minds of potential visitors year-round."

"Some of the nuances just really speak to Boulder -- and how much we care about the cup of coffee -- subtleties like that," she said. "For that audience, it's a perfect commercial."

Mahoney said she expects the commercial to complement the race-day TV coverage, which will showcase the Boulder backdrop with helicopter footage and commentary.

"During the two hours of television time, they're going to be talking about Boulder quite a bit," she said. "People will be seeing the sights of Boulder and the surrounding mountains and the Flagstaff finish. ... It will really encourage people to say, 'Oh, I can come to discover Boulder another time. Look at all the things to do.'"

Dwight, the star of the commercial and owner of Boulder Cycle Sport, said he expects the video to take a little bit of a ribbing from Boulder "haters." (The coffeemaker, the garage and many of the bikes in it are really Dwight's, but lots of the other toys stuffed in the garage arrived via U-Haul just for the shoot.)

But Dwight said the truth is that there really are a lot of great outdoorsy things to do in Boulder, and for that matter, in the whole state.

"It's not just Boulder; it's Colorado in general," he said. "If you enjoy the outdoors, why wouldn't you come here?"Contact Camera Staff Writer Laura Snider at 303-473-1327 or sniderl@dailycamera.com.

Brandon Dwight peers into his garage while drinking a cup of coffee, trying to decide what the day s activity will be, in an ad created by the Sterling-Rice Group.
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